The "GOODBYE, MARY ANNE" banner that hung in the staff lunchroom made her eyes well up with tears and and she was truly touched by how many people showed up to bid her farewell. From the loud chatter in the room, and endless amount of hugs and people saying goodbye, to the potluck's huge spread of food and desserts brought in by all the administrative faculty, she wasnt sure how to process all this sensory overload and her head began to hurt from holding in the tears.
Still, Mary Anne was still the head librarian for the next few hours and had a job to do so she went about her last day as professionally as she could but obviously her mind was somewhere else. She couldn't believe what was happening to her. Here she was, leaving her job on a whim and going into the party planning business. Going into business with COKIE MASON, of all people. The person who had made her life miserable and had stolen her first love away, yet this was the direction she had decided to go and despite what Kristy had told her, she wasn't feeling any regrets.
This was the start of something good and new. A new job, a new friendship blossoming both personally and professionally and for the first time in a long time, Mary Anne was excited about the future.
As she carried a big box containing all of her things, she walked out of the library and off of Stoneybrook University's campus for the last time. She had spent the last 12 years of her life on that campus and while it had become home to her, she decided not to look back at it and instead, just drove away and for the first time that day, she was unable to shed a tear.
The quiet, timid, emotional and always predictable Mary Anne Spier had found her new place and it now, it was HER time to shine.